If you’ve looked at the above videos and still ask why, then simply move on to the next Woot.
This thing is cool. I want 2.
Practical concern (if that’s allowed on this wacky thing) for a > $50 toy… looking at those innards, one wonders how durable they are… and how many jaw-clampings by our dog Charlie will this thing survive?
Darn it! I want one…however, justifying $50 to the hubby for a ‘ball’ just isn’t gonna fly. With 5 cats, I thought it would be a Hoot! Hmmm, however…I might be able to write off as a business expense…being a petsitter (because I was gonna use it as a cat toy anyway).
@myfester, that works! Especially if you really have an LLC and can show you advertise active interaction and play for your clients’ pets.
So if you’re in, say, the 25% tax bracket that takes the effective cost of this pet-sitting apparatus down to a little over $40 after shipping.
Go for it… now if I can just figure out a “tool” application for my business…
I have one of these. My dog loves it. It’s not too slow or anything, so I’m hardly dying to get the newer version.
What size dog do you have? I’m worried my lab will annihilate it in seconds like most things.
Does annoying people at the office count as a business expense?
I can’t believe I just spent $50 on a cat toy… But I’m really saving $60, right? Right?
because woot!
“Hey hubby, it was only $10 a cat sly smile”
These are really cool. I talk about them extensively for Libraries as an engagement tool. I own a few, and they are quite durable.
-Brian Pichman
I’ve had one for a couple of years. When I got it, I rolled it around while a friend’s 2-year-old repeatedly picked it up and threw it onto concrete. It never once cracked, failed, or glitched out at all. And he had a great time!
I now have a 5-month-old that loves to stare at it roll around the floor, and I’m sure once he learns to crawl he’ll be chasing it around the house too.
Spheros are mad durable. The marketing can’t call it completely indestructible but it darn near seems like it.
Got an email from thinkgeek today. Are charging $100 for the original Sphero Robotic Ball, $130 for the 2.0 version.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ed94/
Thanks woot. I saw this deal today and decided a Sphero 1.0 wasn’t good enough for me now that a new version is out so I drove to Brookstone on my lunch break and spent $130 on a 2.0. I had a $50 gift card to burn, but still. What’s wrong with me? Before seeing the videos in today’s comments I had no desire to buy a rolling robot ball. After watching them, I had to have it…
Spay and neuter your pets – and apparently your robots as well.
How do you use them in the library? I’m always looking for new tools.
“Some men see things as they are and say ‘Why?’ I dream things that never were and say ‘Why not?’” - George Bernard Shaw
Yeah I was thinking the same!
Mine’s waiting for me at home! I’m really not going to want to wait for it to charge…
I got mine, charged it, and I think it’s bricked.
The application starts up and finds the ball. Then it goes to an “updating” page with some horrible synth music that you can’t stop. It hangs there and eventually the little ball falls asleep. It’s now blinking red and I no matter what I do (tried three tablets now) I can’t get past this point.
Not sure if the unit was bad or if the software is just that bad. But so far, I’m finding no joy with this at all.